Connectivity underground is essential to reducing the energy costs of your mine

Connectivity between the surface and your underground operations is essential to ensuring you are on track to reduce the energy costs of your mine and make productivity gains. Short interval control (SIC) is an increasingly adopted approach to improve production during a shift. However, without the right connectivity systems in place your mine is at risk of missing the valuable improvement opportunities it offers.

Connectivity begins with accessing real-time data on your truck or loader operating parameters, enabling the management of these assets to optimise performance. MST supplies over 100 mines with streaming data from various sensors on board vehicles to report on analytics such as engine temperature, oil pressure and load. This data is analysed by software applications in near real-time at the mine control-room, or at a remote operation centre (ROC) thousands of kilometres away.

The access provided by the right sensors enables reporting analysis to detect SIC plan deviations, determine corrective actions, and swiftly relay them back underground to operators. Without this connectivity to data and personnel the SIC plan loses efficiency so it is imperative you create a reliable network of data and voice communication between the surface and underground.

Connectivity enables two-way flow of data and communications to allow deviations to be detected and corrective actions implemented within the shift, rather than accumulating all shift long. Mines can now set achievable SIC goals, for example managing corrective implementation within an hour from a machine’s operation deviating from plan.

As the expectations of governments and communities increase on the mining industry to seek reduced energy costs[1] in production there is growing demand for monitoring all underground operations to ensure energy savings are made wherever possible. This demand for monitoring increases the volume of data to be communicated and analysed within each shift.

At MST we believe in empowering your operations with a complete solution that offers a range of sensors and communications assets and also high bandwidth network infrastructure with software to visualise, analyse and identify savings efficiently. We’re looking ahead to ensure today’s mines are prepared for tomorrows digitalisation demands.

No matter where you are on your productivity journey we are here to support your next steps. Contact a digital transformation partner today.

[1] https://www.energy.gov.au/business/large-businesses/industries/mining/mining-overview